Atlanta spa shootings: 8 dead including 6 Asian women [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Officials reported three separate shootings in Georgia on Tuesday, which killed at least eight people — six of them were Asian women.
• Authorities arrested a man from Cherokee County, Robert Aaron Long, whom they believed was the suspect in all the consecutive shootings.
• The incident came amid growing calls of anti-Asian hate campaigns in the US.

Authorities reported that a man was arrested in Georgia on Tuesday night as he was suspected to be involved in three different shootings in massage parlors and spas in Atlanta — leaving eight people dead.

A 21-year-old man named Robert Aaron Long, a resident of Cherokee County, was arrested in Crisp County, about 125 miles south of Atlanta, per Cherokee County sheriff Capt. Jay Baker.

According to the Crisp County Sheriff’s office, Long’s vehicle was seen on I-75 southbound. He was stopped by authorities using a State Patrol trooper.

Officials said that four people were killed in Cherokee County in northern Atlanta, about 5 pm, while four other women also passed away in two separate shootings in Atlanta around 6 pm. Authorities claimed that at least six of the victims were Asian women.

The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office did not give further details on the other casualties. Officials did not also provide information about the suspect’s motive.

On Tuesday night, the Atlanta police announced that the suspect in the city’s two shootings could also be the perpetrator of the Cherokee County shooting. Authorities already launched a probe to determine whether the shootings were connected.

Baker said that their county’s police found two dead people and three injured at a massage parlor in the Acworth community.

Baker noted that the shootings were an unusual case for their area. “This is not very common for us. In 2020, we had one homicide.”

After nearly an hour about 30 miles away, Atlanta police responded to a robbery report on Piedmont Road as they saw three women who got killed from gunshots. While they were on the site, they got another shooting report in a nearby location, where another woman was killed.

According to Police Chief Rodney Bryant, the first crime scene was a spa, while the other location was an aromatherapy spa. He said that authorities were already reviewing the video as they still determine the reason behind the fatal shootings.

“We are in the very early stages of this,” he said.

In response to the violence, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted: “Our entire family is praying for the victims of these horrific acts of violence. We deeply appreciate the quick apprehension of a suspect by @ga_dps in coordination with local and federal law enforcement.”

The deaths of six Asian women followed as calls for anti-Asian hate campaigns grew in recent times. A research about Stop AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) Hate on Tuesday showed that there were 3,800 attacks made against women since last year amid the pandemic. 

Source: NBC News